Washington — When Theodore Roosevelt, as 26th president of the United States,
invited six legendary Indian chiefs to participate in his 1905 inaugural parade,
the idea was to “give the people a good show,” as he put it.

All six chiefs — Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache), Quanah Parker (Comanche),
Buckskin Charlie (Ute), American Horse (Oglala Sioux), Little Plume (Piegan
Blackfeet) and Hollow Horn Bear (Brule Sioux) — accepted Roosevelt’s invitation
and came to Washington. Their appearance at the inaugural parade, their
subsequent meetings with Roosevelt and their overall legacy are the focus of a
photographic exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the
American Indian (NMAI).

Titled A Century Ago: They Came as Sovereign Leaders, the exhibition outlines
the chiefs’ roles as advocates for their people at a time when Native American
culture was under siege and tribal rights were largely unrecognized. According
to José Barreiro, assistant director for research at NMAI, “the American Indian
was thought of as ‘the vanishing American’ during the early 20th century.” It
was, he said, “probably the worst moment in history for Indian people.”

Although Roosevelt’s inaugural committee expected the six chiefs to add “a
picturesque touch of color” to the festivities, the chiefs had an entirely
different agenda, Barreiro said. They regarded the president’s invitation as an
opportunity to advance the interests of their people, who were being pushed off
tribal lands to accommodate white settlers.

Banding Together

Each chief had a compelling personal history that
burnished his leadership credentials. Geronimo, the eldest, was a legendary
warrior who had fought the U.S. government for years. He hoped that his audience
with Roosevelt would convince the president to allow the Apache people to return
to their ancestral homelands in the American southwest.

Quanah Parker, a so-called “half-breed” whose mother was a white woman,
campaigned skillfully against federal land-allotment policies that sought to
break up tribal lands. He invited Roosevelt “to go wolf hunting in the Big
Pasture area, an adventure Roosevelt could not resist,” the exhibition states.
During his visit with the Comanche leader, Roosevelt said, he recognized that
Parker was “now painfully teaching his people to travel the white man’s stony
road.” Parker eventually became the catalyst of the Native American Church,
which fused certain tribal practices with traditional elements of Christianity,
Barreiro said.

Hollow Horn Bear was a respected peacekeeper who encouraged unity among Sioux
leaders, while Little Plume was considered a great warrior and counselor.
Buckskin Charlie, revered as a political and spiritual leader, championed tribal
values and helped guide his people through the difficulties of adjusting to an
agrarian lifestyle. American Horse was a proponent of Native self-governance and
educational opportunity.

Setting the Stage for Future Gains
Before the six chiefs could press their claims with the U.S. government, they
knew they had to “reach the American public, essentially going above the heads
of lawmakers,” Barreiro said. “They were very conscious of the importance of
public relations.”

Roosevelt’s inaugural parade would boost the chiefs’ visibility and possibly
enhance their bargaining position. On horseback, wearing full regalia, the
chiefs created a sensation as they entered the parade route; Roosevelt and his
entourage, enjoying the parade from the presidential box, rose to their feet as
the six men came into view. The chiefs turned in their saddles to acknowledge
Roosevelt.

Although he was sympathetic to the Indians’ predicament, Roosevelt refused to
halt the dispersal of tribal lands, for fear that more conflict with settlers
would result. Geronimo’s appeals to Roosevelt did not succeed, but the Apache
chief would later publish his life story and dedicate the book to Roosevelt, and
the president read the memoir from cover to cover.

Quanah Parker’s lobbying efforts were more fruitful; he persuaded Roosevelt to
modify land-allotment legislation to include the rights of Native children and
to provide a $500,000 fund promised by the government in earlier treaty
negotiations. Despite the setbacks they experienced, the six chiefs were
tremendously influential in sowing the seeds of the Indian-rights movement that
would emerge long after their deaths, Barreiro said. “It was the strength of
that transitional leadership that built the cultural and political resiliency”
of American Indians, he added.

“It’s only been in the last 35 years or so that people have recognized the value
of Native cultures,” but “the issues that the six chiefs dealt with were similar
to those of today,” Barreiro said. “Their legacy is carried on by their
descendants, who have preserved a lot of the tribes’ oral history.” Also, in the
face of misguided federal policies that wreaked havoc on Native societies, “the
American public has always had a strong current of sympathy for Indian causes,”
Barreiro observed. “In part, that comes from the leadership of the six chiefs
who came forth to advocate for their people.”

Not incidentally, “the formative period of American history created a sense of
solidarity with rebels and underdogs,” said Barreiro. Probably no one understood
that better than the canny, resourceful men who stole the spotlight at
Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural parade, electrifying onlookers as they rode their
horses — six abreast — in ceremonial splendor.